Kanye West’s meeting with President Trump at the White House was definitely a spectacle, but funny? I didn’t think so. West ranted non-stop about welfare, prisons, the 13th amendment, being misdiagnosed bipolar, his Make America Great Again hat being his Superman cape and more. Much more. Even Trump couldn’t get a word in edgeways and just sat there with a face like a badly carved Halloween pumpkin. Occasionally, he’d nod as though West had said something extremely wise, but Trump is so desperate for celebrity support, he’d have Chucky from Child’s Play around for tea if he could.
Afterwards, Trump’s mouth said: “That was very impressive” but his eyes said: “Do we need the chloroform pad?” If Trump thinks you’ve gone too far, then it really is time to take a break. Indeed, West appears to be mentally struggling and has been for some time. For this reason, the cameras in the White House should not have been filming him. The same applies to West’s chaotic Saturday Night Live performance a couple of weeks ago, where he launched into another confused diatribe about being bullied backstage, supporting Trump, running for president in 2020 and the damn MAGA hat/Superman stuff again.
In both instances, it wasn’t funny, it was disturbing. If someone was behaving this way in the street, most of us would probably edge away and feel awful for doing so. So why is it acceptable to treat West as some kind of rent-a-ramble dancing bear, someone it’s OK for liberals to laugh at? There is no justification at all – even West’s support for Trump is couched in such Superman cape-themed oddness that sometimes it feels as though it’s more of a symptom than an opinion. Right now, the people close to West seem to be doing a lousy job of looking out for him. To everyone else, how about keeping the cameras away for a while?
• Barbara Ellen is an Observer columnist
